Eyes wide open
by Greatness forever
Summary: He thought understanding Senjutsu meant he understood the nature of all things, but these revelations of the darker nature of humanity, what separates humans from monsters and the shapes the monsters take, merely managed to show him how little he actually knew. "You know nothing Uzumaki Naruto"


Prologue

Toxic energy flowing through his veins encouraging him to let the world burn, burn for its cruelty, burn for the betrayal he suffered from his brother's hands, burn for a broken childhood, burn for his crushed potential and for every little indignity he has had to suffer, for every time he had to prove that he too deserved to be treated as human, even if that is only as a second class citizen, staking his life for ungrateful, uncaring people. And this asshole with delusions of Godhood just had to destroy his village, no matter how much he hated it. And kill his people, no matter how much they shunned him, just when it looked like they were about to accept him.

Almost sixteen years of toil taken away in one moment, his blood boiled, the ever present voice in his mind, his proverbial devil on the shoulder insisting to let go, let go of his bonds, his pains, his weakness. To leave behind his need to find a place where he would fit in and be accepted. There is no one to care for him anymore. There is no reason to endure. A true ninja might always endure, but he was always never all that good of a ninja after all. It will be so much easier to show them what he really thought of them. Who he really was in the depth of his heart.

He was not sure of it himself, were these really his thoughts or was this the result of using the cursed chakra? His life has always been dictated by others. With the death of Jiraiya, is it now going to be shaped by the demon's hatred? No, he was just being a coward again and blaming the Kyuubi for his failures and misery once more. This was not the raging hatred of the Kyuubi's chakra threatening to devour the world, but at the same time these thoughts were not entirely his, they could not be. He could still feel the Kitsune's chakra and hatred flowing through him, if muted by his father's skill. The demon's chakra was just amplifying his negative emotions, they were not the source. Then, if these thoughts were his own, should he just follow them? Why should he be the one who always sacrifices? Could he not, just once give in?

No, like always, he decided to walk the higher, tougher path, with his father's words of faith ringing in his ears, he once agains foregoes revenge, petty satisfaction, if not for the right reasons but at least to prove to the damn villagers he was not the monster they thought he was, he was not the monster they tried to turn him into.

 **HE WAS BETTER THAN THAT, BETTER THAN THEM.**

And he will prove it to them by being a better human being than them when it matters. To show them that even when facing the murderer who has left him once again truly alone in this world, killing the one person he thought of as his family, he would not fight for revenge but to protect the unworthy and continue Jiraiya's legacy. Where they would have taken up pitchforks and axes to rain cruel vengeance, he would show mercy. The monster boy of the village would spare Nagato's life, when they would have ruthlessly snuffed it out. Where they would murder, he would forgive. On his more clearer moments with the whispers quieted he would wonder, was he a better man or was he just pretending to be a better man to spite them.

By chance or design, by nature or cruel nurture, he knew not. What he knew was he had made his decision, and as always it was a selfish one. He was always too selfish to taint his own hands, too selfish to be accept the label of a monster for the greater good, too cowardly to do what he knew was necessary. Cloaking himself in a mask of righteousness and benevolence, parroting Jiraiya - Sensei's teachings, he spoke the next four words that would seal his fate.

"Nagato, I forgive you"

"But why?" Pain said in confusion. "I have taken everything away from you. Showed you my pain. How can you forgive me. Why do you not try to kill me. Do you not want to avenge them?"

"Because Jiraiya-sensei would not have wanted me to kill you."

"It is too late for him" said the lady draped in papers. "He has expended too much chakra."

"Yes, what a disappointment he has turned out to be" said a gravelly voice from the depths of the cave, walking out of the shadows, surprising even the previous inhabitants. "I had hoped he could have lasted at least a few more years."

"Madara ho-"

"How did I slip past both the Rinnegan and the Senjutsu's senses? You should know by now Nagato. There is a reason why I am the leader of Akatsuki."

"Who the hell are you?" finally regaining his speech and ending his surprised silence the blonde sage exclaimed

"Be silent Kyuubi, I will deal with you momentarily" Came the instantaneous reply. Not even bothering to take his eye's off the dying rinnegan wielder, he moved forward taking a pair of glass containers from his cloak. "Now it's about time I harvested those eyes of yours, wouldn't want them dying with your body would we? Who knows how long it would take for another Rinnegan holder to be born? Especially with the Senjus and Uzumakis all but wiped out. I don't really have another 1000 years after all. Well, I do, but I rather not wait"

"Stay away from him. I will not let another one of my friends be desecrated again." said the lady as she appeared in a flutter of paper in between Nagato and the masked man.

"No Konan, don't. You cannot stop him" coughed out Nagato. "I always knew something like this would happen. Go now, I will take care of him."

"She is going nowhere" His stride unbroken, the masked man almost carelessly waves a hand at Naruto as he advances on the dying Rinnegan wielder. "Kyuubi, take care of her"

"Wha-", faster than he has moved almost anytime today, Naruto was inches from Konan hand extended rasengan humming ominously seconds from caving her face in when Konan dispersed to the other side of the cave in a ready combat stance.

"Hmm, it seems he was subconsciously holding back on you Nagato" came the amused observation from the masked intruder " He is almost as fast now as he was with Sage mode earlier and a single handed rasengan too, good to know. Well, where were we?"

Desperate, Nagato attempts to use one of the forbidden jutsu's of the rinnegan

"Banbutsu Ten -gurgh ". only to find that Madara had decided to ignore the remaining distance between them and was now right in front of him holding him up by his throat,

"None of that now, I'm not in the mood to deal with your petty tantrums" came the calm voice of the man choking him, while at the same time his other hand was depositing a sphere of some sort into a glass container floating, unnaturally still at shoulder height next to him. If only he could see more clearly, the lack of oxygen to his brain was starting to blind him. Wait, he was blinded only in one side. That was his eye in the jar. In Spite of having no oxygen in his lungs, he screamed.

His scream shook the cavern, empowered by his chakra and the remaining one rinnegan,blew the paper walls of the cave and more importantly shattered Naruto's eardrums breaking him out of his genjutsu. Before he could come to terms with what is happening in front him he felt the one called Konan rush past him, trying to reach Nagato. The small distance to cover seemed to stretch to eternity. What should have taken seconds for an academy student took forever for the S Rank Kunoichi, to no avail. She was no closer to reaching her dearest friend than she was at the start.

What would have been a comical sight any other time, turned into a heart wrenching display of loss and cruelty. The murderers of his village were brought down to their knees wailing in despair, making him see the reality of this world all over again. The rules are dictated by those who cannot be challenged. Konoha could not stand up to Nagato and Nagato in turn could not stand up to this man.

A sick squelching sound drew his attention to the side as he saw the masked man holding the final eyeball of what was until most recently his most terrifying enemy in his hand. He seemed to gaze at it almost curiously for an instant before dismissing it and dropping it into a jar. Still holding Nagato by the throat as the jar is surrounded by a spiralling vortex in space and disappears into it, the masked man turns his head around and cocks it at Konan who was still trying to reach them futilely. He seemed to sigh for a second, before snapping the fingers of his free hand. The space between the Kunoichi and the duo distorts as she loses her balance stumbling to the floor falling in front her blinded friend.

"H…...how?" asks the downed kunoichi

Once again sighing. The masked man intones almost like a father explaining a simple concept to an obtuse child. "When you can control distance between two points of space, time and space starts becoming relative concepts my dear Konan. You could cross a mile in step or you can take an eternity to move an inch, never be able to reach what is infront you. You can even take never ending walks in a beach if you wanted, though it gets a bit lonely sometimes."

Naruto, terrified as he was. His anger once again won over. Rational thought leaving him at the familiar sight of perceived inhuman cruelty, he recklessly charges the masked man rasengan in hand, not even realising the rasengan was formed single handed. He thrusts forward inches from the back of the cruel Ninja only to find his rasengan tearing through the hauntingly beautiful and despairing face of Konan.

"W...What?H...How" Naruto stuttered stepping back in horrified shock as he saw Konan's headless corpse fall at his feet drenching him in blood and brain matter.

"Time and space child, time and space" scoffed the masked man."Did you not hear me? Or are you truly that stupid? All that potential wasted on you. To think you are the son of that man and this slow on the uptake, pitiful" Casting a glance at the coughing and spitting blood form of Nagato held up by the throat. He casually lets go of Nagato's neck while turning to face Naruto and somehow distorting the space irregularly all around Nagato before his feet can even hit the ground, tearing him to shreds. His muffled scream of tortured pain barely travels to Naruto's ears as a distant echo from the distorted space phenomenon.

Now terrified beyond all measure, Naruto grasps at the one topic that seemed to be safe from the man's monologue."D...dad, how do you know dad.?"

"Of course I know him. If it weren't for him, the Kyuubi would have destroyed Konoha that day. I still remember the feel of that abominable jutsu tearing into me. It is good that man is rotting in the shinigami's stomach now. He would have torn me to shreds were he still alive." remised the masked man."Now, come along now. I don't have all day"

"N..No, stay away" stutters Naruto, all thoughts of Senjutsu, his training under the frogs, his training under Jiraiya or Kakashi forgotten, stepping back from the advancing monster when all of a sudden a familiar toxic and corrosive chakra fills his veins, thick with greater hatred than any he has felt, even compared to how the Kyuubi felt when it faced the Yondaime in the seal. Naruto doubles over in pain as the amount of chakra intensifies.

"No" snaps the masked man covering the distance between them in an instant, realising the Kitsune's plan. He reaches for the jinchuriki's throat unmindful of the frothing acidic chakra bubbling and melting his skin. "BOY, LOOK AT ME" he commands lifting Naruto by the throat.

" **KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED"** roared the bijuu **" I WILL NOT BE A SLAVE AGAIN"**

Fighting the pain of the violent chakra flowing through him, fighting the lack of oxygen in his lungs, fighting the grasping hands trying to rip out his eyelids, fighting the feel of his skin being melted and his blood being boiled to a red mist, Naruto for the first time in his life listened to the Kyuubi and keeps his eyes shut. Both of them working together in harmony against this man shaped monster in front of them. Unmindful of tears flowing down his cheeks, Naruto grits his teeth and keeps his eyes shut even as the man rips his left eyelid off and the Kyuubi immediately regenerates it while at the same time boiling away his eye the moment it was exposed and boiling away his right eye too for good measure. Finally his body no longer able to bear the titanic amount of chakra circulating through it without transforming …..bursts at the seams right as he hears the last thing in this lifetime. The one thing that makes this all worth it. The cry of utter frustration and rage from the masked man.

" **Nooooooooooooo"**

And thus Uzumaki Naruto finally knew peace in the embrace of death.

" **You know nothing Uzumaki Naruto** **."**


End file.
